2012年1月30日星期一

In a landmark 1998 study moncler sale, investigators showed rhesus monkeys could differentiate between the number of objects in a group and put them into ascending order. The ability was thought to apply only to humans and other primates, until now.

“Our results demonstrate a correspondence in the way monkeys and pigeons represent numbers and in their ability to acquire an abstract ordinal rule,” the researchers said. “Our results suggest that, at least with respect to numerical competence, pigeons are on par with primates and are well perched to inform us about the selection pressures and neural structures required for abstract numerical cognition moncler women jackets.”

The investigators said they aren’t sure if pigeons and monkeys acquired their math skills from a shared common ancestor or if the numerical competence evolved independently.

“Irrespective of its origin, the results of the present experiment adds to a growing body of work demonstrating that birds possess a number of abilities that were, at one point in time, considered primate unique, such as episodic memory and the use and manufacture of tools,” the researchers said. “Indeed, over the past two decades, the intellectual status of birds has risen markedly moncler men jackets.”

2012年1月17日星期二

The two-time All-Star left-hander joked he may have www.cheapburberryoutlet2012.com something in mind after agreeing Tuesday to a $4.35 million, one-year deal.

“I might ask (Derek) Jeter if I can buy a wing in his house for a little while,” Price said, alluding to the 30,000 square-foot mansion that the New York Yankees shortstop owns in Tampa.

The 26-year-old Price, a 19-game winner in 2010, made $1.25 million last season while going 12-13 with a 3.49 ERA to help the Rays advance to the playoffs for the third time in four years.

Center fielder B.J. Upton and reliever Burke Badenhop also agreed to one-year deals before the deadline for teams and players to exchange salary proposals. Upton will make $7 million, and Badenhop will get $1,075,000 next season.

Upton earned $4.85 million last year, when he batted .243 with 23 homers and 81 RBIs. Badenhop was acquired in a trade this winter after the reliever went 2-3 with a 4.10 ERA in 50 appearances for the Marlins.

The agreements left pitcher Jeff Niemann as the team’s only player in arbitration. The right-hander earned $903,000 last season and requested $3.2 million for 2012. The Rays offered $2.75 million.

Price said he was confident all along that his agent, Bo McKinnis, would reach a deal.

“I actually didn’t know anything that was going on. I just kind of stayed out of it,” Price said. “I have all the faith in the world in my agent. … He took care of me and got me what I felt I deserved.”

The hard-throwing lefty and No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft said he would be receptive to negotiating a long-term deal.

“I love it here. … It’s a good place for me to be,” Price said. “As long as I’m here, I’m going to give everything I’ve got. If we can work something out, so be it. If not, it’s part of the business and you just have to take it one day at a time.”

Rays executive vice president of baseball Burberry women t-shirts, cheap burberry short t-shirts for women outlet operations Andrew Friedman shrugged off a question about whether the team is open to talking about a long-term contract.The Rangers avoided salary arbitration by agreeing to contracts with relievers Mike Adams and Mark Lowe, starting pitcher Matt Harrison and outfielder David Murphy. They exchanged arbitration figures with catcher Mike Napoli, outfielder Nelson Cruz and shortstop Elvis Andrus.

The two-time defending AL champions also were working to finish a multiyear deal with Darvish before their 30-day negotiating window ends Wednesday at 4 p.m. CST. Texas last month bid a record $51.7 million under the posting system to win the right just to negotiate with the 25-year-old pitcher.

General manager Jon Daniels wasn’t on the field or in the clubhouse during pitching camp Tuesday, and didn’t return messages.

“(Wednesday) is a big day, and we can bring him in the fold, or we can move forward,” manager Ron Washington said.

Rangers President Nolan Ryan was out of town, but twice in the past week expressed optimism that the deal with Darvish would get done by the deadline. The Hall of Fame pitcher also has said how impressed he was when he first met Darvish during a visit to Texas two weeks ago.

The 6-foot-5 Darvish, who has already undergone a physical for Texas, was home in Japan while his agents, Arn Tellem and Don Nomura, talked with the Rangers.

If a deal isn’t completed by Wednesday, Darvish would return to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League and the Rangers wouldn’t pay the posting fee. Negotiations were expected to go to the deadline.

Cruz, whose eight postseason homers last year included six in the AL championship series with a game-ending grand slam in Game 2, asked for $7.5 million while the Rangers offered $5.5 million. He made $3.65 million last year, when he hit .263 with 29 homers and 87 RBIs in 124 games.

Napoli set career highs by hitting .320 with 30 homers and 75 RBIs in 113 games in his first season with Texas, when he made $5.8 million after spending his first burberry bags outlet five seasons with the Los Angeles Angels. He asked for $11.5 million, and Texas offered $8.3 million.

2012年1月16日星期一

The presentation took over for the second time the burberry bags 2012 British comedian Ricky Gervais, and his evil suggestions, the Häme develops over the German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck to be a perennial. Last year sneered Gervais already Donnersmarck's film flop "The Tourist", now he spoke at the actor Johnny Depp from the stage: "And Johnny, you've seen the movie now?" Potter said no, they all laughed.

The Golden Globes are awarded by the Foreign Press Association, and the gala in Beverly Hills had two big winners, now also a favorite for the Oscars on 26 February are: the charming French silent film "The Artist", which received three awards - including the best comedy - and the family drama "The Descendants" with George Clooney in the lead role, which is now regarded as best drama. In black and white "The Artist" plays the Jack Russell Terrier Uggie a crucial role. He is the best friend and later, the life saver of a new technical possibilities with the squabbling silent film star (played by Jean Dujardin), and on stage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, he led prior to the delight of the audience Cheap burberry women bikini, 2012 fashion burberry bikini for women gala art pieces.

That currently the most important actress Meryl Streep is Hollywood, was once more than the 62-year-old the price for the presentation of Margaret Thatcher in the film biography "The Iron Lady" won - it is her eighth Golden Globe. Streep noticed only on stage that she had forgotten her glasses, but they did not go back to her place so she swore and said without a script thank you. The U.S. television cut out the expletive in its transmission.

In recent years there has been little overlap at the Golden Globes and Oscars, the film won awards for the best in each other productions. 2012, it looks likely to be similarities. All winners are regarded as promising candidates for the Oscars. The nominations will be on 24 Announced in January.

In addition to feature films have won awards in Los Angeles and television series. Among the nominees showed how complicated this has become now - just as expensive and high quality movies. "Mildred Pierce" as directed by Hollywood director Todd Haynes, to play the stars Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood. Winslet won the Golden Globe as well. The other names of the winners burberry outlet and nominees in the series read like the opening credits of a blockbuster: Laura Dern, Jessica Lange, Claire Danes.

2012年1月15日星期日

Jose Aldo stopped Chad Mendes with one devastating knee to the head with a second left in the first round Saturday night, defending his featherweight burberry bags cheap title in his homeland at UFC 142.

Aldo (21-1) spun and knocked the previously unbeaten Mendes senseless on his back with a perfectly timed right knee that caught Mendes (11-1) flush in the face. Aldo then landed two punches to Mendes' defenseless head before referee Mario Yamasaki stopped the bout before the bell.

Aldo then bolted from the octagon and sprinted into the HSBC Arena crowd, which raised him on its shoulders to cap the UFC's second event in Brazil in six months after a 13-year absence. Aldo has won 14 straight fights since November 2005, including three defenses of the UFC's first featherweight title belt.

"This is why I do this," Aldo said through a translator. "I'm so happy to be fighting at home."

The card featured several dramatic finishes by Brazilian fighters for the sellout crowd. Former UFC champion Vitor Belfort stopped Anthony Johnson with a first-round submission, and Rousimar Palhares beat Mike Massenzio with a first-round leglock.

Edson Barboza also produced a spectacular knockout, dropping Terry Etim unconscious onto his back with a spinning heel kick -- a rare mixed martial arts move.

In the main event, Mendes repeatedly tried to take down Aldo, hoping to showcase the Sacramento-based fighter's impressive wrestling abilities. But Aldo has perhaps the UFC's best takedown defense, and he parried every attempt until Mendes managed to get behind Aldo late in the round.

Mendes pinned Aldo against the cage for more than a minute, but Aldo spun out of Mendes' grip and floored the American fighter, who ducked his head right into Aldo's knee.

Johnson (10-4) was an astonishing 11 pounds over the middleweight limit Friday, forcing the UFC to fine him 20 percent of his purse. Belfort agreed to move the bout to a 197-pound catch weight.

Johnson was unlikely to have much stamina after attempting to cut weight, and Belfort won after weathering a furious start in which Johnson closed Belfort's right eye. The Rio de Janeiro eventually got on top of Johnson and choked out the American contender, who had lost just once in his last six fights.

"I'm back on track," said Belfort, the former UFC light heavyweight champion. "I'm focused on my goal, and I'll pursue it."

Belfort's only loss since October 2006 was a first-round knockout on a kick from Anderson Silva in a bout for the UFC middleweight title last February.

Palhares (23-3) added to his fearsome reputation for impressive ground skills with a gruesome heel hook on Massenzio (13-6), who tapped out in agony to end their middleweight bout at 1:20 of the first round. Palhares has won six of his last seven fights.

Barboza (10-0) delivered what's certain to be one of the year's most impressive knockouts at 2:02 of the third round of his lightweight fight. Etim was out on his burberry 2012 feet when the heel kick landed.

More than half the field were trying to finish their second rounds when strong wind and heavy rain lashed Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club and ended play.

Overnight co-leader Jamie Elson was one of 12 players still to tee off.

Two-time defending champion Charl Schwartzel was 3 under after two rounds, just inside the halfway cut.

Rock had an early start to complete his opening round, finishing on the tougher East Course with birdies at Nos. 17 and 18. He then had an eagle and four birdies on the West layout to open a narrow advantage in the second European Tour event of the season.

Michiel Bothma also finished two rounds and was 9 under. George Coetzee, who had played six holes of his second round, also was at 9 under.

Retief Goosen was four shots off the lead through six holes of the second round.

Masters champion Schwartzel struggled with his putting. He had four birdies and a bogey for a 3-under 68 on the West Course and a tie for 56th.One year after back surgery that made him wonder if he could ever play golf again, DeLaet chipped in for eagle and twice holed 35-foot birdie putts for a 7-under 63 that gave the Canadian a two-shot lead.

Carl Pettersson and former Sony Open champion K.J. Choi were among those at 65, while Kapalua winner Steve Stricker, Webb Simpson and Bud Cauley were among those at 66.

“I’m just so excited to be back out,” DeLaet said. “I had a good season my rookie campaign, and then it was all basically just taken away. And I realize now how fortunate we are to be playing golf for a living. My whole attitude is definitely better.”

For Stricker, a minor adjustment was in order.

He is trying to become the first player since cheap scarves for sale Ernie Els in 2003 to sweep the Hawaii events, and Stricker was noticeably tired during his pro-am Wednesday, and parts of the opening round.

Part of that was a Monday finish on Maui. He took the day off Tuesday, and he couldn’t take three steps Wednesday without dozens of players congratulating him.

“A nice problem to have,” Stricker said.

He picked up four birdies on the back nine, though, and was right in the hunt.

Cauley, who last year became the sixth player to go from college to the PGA Tour without Q-school, didn’t show any signs of rust from having not played in nearly two months. He ran off four straight birdies around the turn until he stalled, then dropped a shot on the 17th and missed a birdie opportunity on the 18th when he tried to hit fairway metal out of a bunker and topped cheap burberry his shot.

2012年1月12日星期四

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta cheap burberry bags telephoned Karzai to denounce the actions in the video as "deplorable" and to say it would be investigated immediately, the Pentagon said. General Martin Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, said actions depicted in the video were illegal.
The U.S. military has identified two of the four Marines in the video so far, a Marine Corps official told Reuters, adding the Marine Corps believed the images were authentic.
But the Pentagon stopped short of offering an official confirmation that the video was real and Panetta said there was not yet a "firm conclusion" on the matter.
The video is likely to stir up already strong anti-U.S. sentiment in Afghanistan after a decade of a war that has seen other cases of abuse. That could complicate efforts to promote reconciliation as foreign troops gradually withdraw.
"Such action will leave a very, very bad impact on peace efforts," Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of the Afghan government's High Peace Council, told Reuters.
The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, seeing a glimmer of hope after months of efforts to broker talks, is launching a fresh round of shuttle diplomacy this weekend.
Marc Grossman, Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will fly into the region for talks with Karzai and top officials in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
One immediate goal is to seal agreement for the Taliban to open a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Despite concerns when the video emerged cheap scarves for sale that it would not help efforts to build confidence among the warring parties, a Taliban spokesman said although the images were shocking, the tape would not affect talks or a possible prisoner release.
"We know that our country is occupied," he said. "This is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage."
CONCERN FOR MORE PROTESTS
Panetta said he had ordered the Marine Corps and the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to investigate and said anyone found responsible will be punished.
"The danger obviously is this kind of video could be misused in many ways not only to undermine what we are trying to do in Afghanistan but undermine the potential for reconciliation. There is a danger there," Panetta told reporters on a trip to Texas.
"But I think if we move quickly - if we conduct this investigation and hold these people accountable - we send a clear signal to the world that the U.S. is not going to tolerate that kind of behavior and it doesn't represent the United States as a whole."
General James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, said in a statement the video "apparently depicts Marines desecrating several dead Taliban in Afghanistan."
He said he had asked the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to examine the incident and had set up another internal inquiry headed by Marine officers.
A Marine officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that all of the Marines in question were believed to be from the 3rd Battallion, 2nd Marines, cheap burberry which is based in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, at the time of the incident.
That unit served in Afghanistan from March to September 2011, the official said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said he was not aware of whether President Barack Obama had seen the video.
News of the footage had yet to spread in Afghanistan - a country where a minority has access to electricity and the Internet is limited to a tiny urban elite - but Afghans who were told about what the tape appears to show were horrified.
"It may start with just video footage but it will end with demonstrations around the country and maybe the world," said 44-year-old Qaisullah, who has a shop near Kabul's Shah-e-dushamshera mosque.
Anti-American feeling has boiled over, or been whipped up, into violence several times in Afghanistan in recent years. Protests over reports of the desecration of the Muslim holy book have twice sparked deadly riots.
The tape also sparked anger across the Middle East and in Internet chatrooms, prompting reference to earlier scandals involving U.S. soldiers' treatment of prisoners in Iraq and the killing of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.
"This is the embodiment of the strong assaulting the weak. It's nothing new for the Americans, it only adds to what they have done in Abu Ghraib prison. This a breach of the sacredness of Islam and Muslims," said Othman al-Busaifi, 45, in Tripoli.
The U.S. military has been prosecuting soldiers from the Army's 5th Stryker Brigade on charges of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians while deployed in Kandahar burberry outlet province in 2010 and cutting off body parts as war trophies.

2012年1月11日星期三

This one was close, with Paul Millsap's Cheap burberry 2012 new arrivals for sale, all designer bags, fashion clothing, luxury accessories and discount shoes are 60% off for men, women and kids, free shipping for orders exceed $200. Tip-in tying it at 78 with 21 seconds left in regulation.
Bryant missed a shot at the buzzer that would have won it in regulation for Los Angeles.
Millsap scored the first four points of overtime, but the Lakers fought back, with 3-pointers by Bryant and Pau Gasol.
The Jazz had a chance to win it, but Bynum blocked Jefferson's short jumper.
Millsap led Utah with 29 points.
Bryant sank a pair of free throws for the final margin, then blocked a long 3-point attempt by Devin Harris as the Jazz inbounded with 0.7 seconds remaining in OT.
The Lakers led by six points in the fourth quarter but the Jazz fought back.
Josh Howard's 3-pointer tied it at 76 with 57 seconds remaining. Bryant followed with an off-balance jumper, but Millsap tied it again at 78 with 21 seconds left on a tip-in.
In overtime, Bynum came up big.
His tip-in gave the Lakers an 88-85 lead with 51 seconds left, then he had the block.
Bynum did not play in the first game this season because he was serving a suspension.
The Jazz shot just 38.7 percent.
Jefferson, who had 30 points Tuesday, had just 11 Wednesday on 5-of-17 shooting. He had only two points in the first 19 minutes.
The Lakers jumped ahead 53-50 midway through the third quarter, with Bryant scoring six points in an 8-2 run.
The Lakers bumped their lead to six points, cheap burberry men shirts before Jefferson sparked a rally with a baseline jumper and back-to-back blocks.
Steve Blake's 3-pointer and a goaltending call against Utah's Derrick Favors gave the Lakers a 66-61 lead entering the fourth quarter.
Utah led 42-41 at halftime after holding the Lakers to just 15 points in the second quarter.
Neither team shot the ball well in the first half, with the Jazz hitting 43.5 percent of their shots and the Lakers shooting 45 percent.
Utah shot 38.7 percent on the night.
The Jazz opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run, with Utah's bench providing the spark. Favors jammed off the fast break, rookie Enes Kanter powered up a layup despite a defender on the ball, and C.J. Miles grabbed an errant pass and dunked for a 29-26 Utah lead with 9:05 left in the half.
Bryant kept the Lakers right there, with 21 first-half points on 8-of-13 shooting.
NOTES: Lakers forward Jason Kapono was not with the team Wednesday so he could be with his wife, who gave birth Tuesday to twin girls. … Josh McRoberts (sprainged toe/thumb) and Troy Murphy (stomach ailment) also did not suit up for L.A. … Jazz guard Raja Bell was assessed a first-quarter technical after giving Bryant a quick shove then having a few words with Burberry bags, cheap burberry handbags outlet, buy 2012 burberry purse him.

European shares hit a one-week Burberry women t-shirts, cheap burberry short t-shirts for women outlet closing high on Tuesday, and U.S. stocks reached a five-month peak, after an upbeat forecast by aluminum company Alcoa about the demand outlook for the metal and amid rising hopes of a policy easing in China.
But concerns about the prospects of Europe extricating itself from its deep-rooted debt problems, set to return to centre stage with a debt sale from Germany today and Italian and Spanish auctions later in the week, saw Asian shares retreat to be little changed overall.
However, the stock market was seen as having the potential for further gains if the debt auctions don't shock.
"It's really the time to allocate more funds to equities. Current prices represent a historic buying opportunity in terms of asset allocation," said Eric Galiègue, head of Valquant, in Paris.
European shares opened slightly higher, up 0.6 percent at 1,027.85 points. The MSCI world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> was up just 0.05 percent.
The euro eased just 0.1 percent to $1.2760 cheap burberry for kids in early trade, down from Tuesday's high of $1.2819 hit after credit rating agency Fitch said it did not expect to cut France's triple-A rating this year.
Italian 10-year bond yields hovered around the crucial 7.0 percent level widely seen as unsustainable for a government with massive debts. Spanish 10-year yields stood at 5.53 percent.
German Bund futures were steady on Wednesday as the market readied for a sale of 4 billion euros ($5.11 billion) in new five-year government bonds. Recent auctions have seen mixed demand with investors caught between desire for low risk assets but with returns at euro-era lows putting off some big investors.
Amid the fears over European funding costs, gold hit a four-week high of $1,646.56 an ounce, before easing slightly to $1,643, as investors were lured to www.cheapburberryoutlet2012.com its safety.

Meanwhile, night protests were held in the Syrian restive provinces of Homs, Idlib and Daraa, to protest the decision taken by the Arab League on Sunday, to extend its mission to Syria, despite criticism from pro-democracy campaigners.

"The Arab League's plan for Syria is a protocol of death for the Syrian people," read one banner, which was posted on the Syrian opposition Facebook page, The Syrian Revolution 2011.

Following a Cairo meeting for an Arab League committee on Syria on Sunday, the League said it would increase the number of monitors from the present 165 and give them more resources, ignoring calls to end what pro-democracy protesters and campaigners say is "a failing mission which only gives time for the regime to kill more people."

The Syrian Local Coordination Committees (LCC), a group of activists organizing protests, expressed in a statement its complete rejection to the Arab League decision.

"This decision puts the killer and the victim on the same line," the Dubai-based Al Arabiya television quoted the statement as saying.

The statement called on the Arab League to meet its responsibility towards the Syrian people through the following steps: "Immediately announcing that the Arab observers have failed in their mission, referring the Syrian file to the UN Security Council, paving the cheap burberry outlet 2012 way for imposing a no-fly zone and establishing a safe corridor for protecting the military defectors."

2012年1月6日星期五

The balloon came burberry outlet 2012 down in calm weather near Carterton, a small town north of the capital Wellington and a popular area for ballooning, in New Zealand's worst aviation disaster in more than 30 years.
As the balloon was preparing to land, it hit power lines, causing sparking in the basket carrying the pilot and 10 passengers, police inspector Brent Register said.
"At this point, two of the 11 people onboard, believed to be a male and a female, appear to have jumped from the basket," he said.
Register said the balloon then made a sharp ascent, a fire ignited on board and the balloon plummeted into a paddock. There were no survivors.
The passengers were confirmed as five couples from the Wellington region.
Aurea Hickland, who lives next to the crash site, saw the accident happen as she was having breakfast. "It was terrible," she was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.
"I said to my husband 'Oh no the basket's on fire, the basket's on fire'. We saw the two people jump and I said to Neil, 'They won't survive,' it was just awful.
"It shot up in the air, and everyone was screaming -- the screaming was just terrible -- and then when the canopy went up in flames it just dropped," she said.
"Neil ran out and then came back with two of the family members (waiting for the balloon to land) and one was saying that they had bought the tickets for their parents for Christmas.
"They just kept saying 'How are we going to tell our children?' "
Another witness, David McKinlay, told reporters Burberry men t-shirts, cheap burberry t-shirts for men 2012 outlet he looked up to see one side of the basket on fire and "all of a sudden there was just 10 metres of flames".
"It was like a rocket coming down; it was just unbelievable," he said.
McKinlay, who alerted the emergency services, said the balloon was about 150 metres up when it suddenly plummeted to the ground.
Jacqui O'Connor, a nurse holidaying in the area, made her way through fallen power lines to reach the two people who leaped from the basket. Their bodies lay about 100 metres from where the balloon crashed down.
It was New Zealand's worst aviation disaster since 1979, when an Air New Zealand jet crashed into Mount Erebus in Antarctica killing 257 people.
Police say they were alerted to the crash just before 7:30 am. Ballooning companies in Carterton, about 150 kilometres (95 miles) north of Wellington, recommend early morning flights.
Reporters at the scene said the crash site had been cordoned off and only emergency workers and the families of those on board the balloon were being allowed through.
The balloon was believed to have been owned by Ballooning New Zealand director Lance Hopping, who has more than 1,000 hours of commercial ballooning experience.
Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the crash and draw up recommendations to prevent a similar accident in future.
"We are deeply sorry to learn of this tragic burberry bags accident and our hearts go out to those who are now mourning the loss of life," Brownlee said.

2012年1月5日星期四

The U.S. search giant has so far failed to impress the industry with the Internet TV platform it launched in 2010. The interface was moncler jackets seen as too confusing for lay users, and Google suffered setbacks as key supplier Logitech pulled its support after losing over US$100 million, and the major U.S. networks blocked video streaming from their websites.

But with televisions sets now seen as the last frontier for Internet content, after computers, phones and tablets, Google has steadily improved its Android-based platform. Google TV got a major software overhaul in October, and the company has continued to market it to hardware and component makers.

On Thursday, Google also said that Taiwanese cheap moncler jackets for men semiconductor firm MediaTek would create chips for Google TV products, joining Marvell, and allowing more consumer products to enter the market. The new addition could help soften the blow of losing Intel, which opted to pull out of the TV market in October.

Samsung and LG will join Sony in launching televisions that run Google TV. This means that the top three global TV moncler jackets 2011 makers by revenue, according to DisplaySearch's numbers for the third quarter of 2011, now support the platform. U.S. powerhouse Vizio is also launching a new line that supports it.

Google's push comes as numerous reports say Apple is hard at work on its own TV platform, which may come as an overhaul of its existing Apple TV box or a completely new television product.

A separate battle is unfolding in the race to attract TV content, with online streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu in competition to cheap moncler secure popular programming. Google, through its YouTube property, is striving to add higher quality content to the user uploaded variety which made the site popular.

Google TV will also run apps on television screens, and the company said it now has more than 150. These include games, content from third-party providers, plus simpler apps, like one that plays high-definition video of a fireplace with jazz and rain sounds in the background.

The oversize photos of Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan painted onto the three towers of the Hotel Figueroa has stopped traffic outside of moncler jackets Staples Center since last week, but nothing has brought the arena to life more than Paul connecting with Griffin and Jordan for their signature lob dunks.

Late in the third quarter of the Los Angeles Clippers' 117-89 win over the Houston Rockets, consecutive lobs from Paul to Jordan and then to Griffin not only brought the sellout crowd to their feet but put the game away for good, allowing the starters to be relegated to towel-waving cheerleaders in the fourth quarter.

The first lob developed slowly and methodically in the half-court with Paul eying Jordan, who cut to the basket along the baseline and jumped as soon as Paul let the ball go. The second happened on a fast break, as Paul released the ball near midcourt and hit a streaking Griffin above the rim. Both plays could have been spotted from as far away as their recently emblazoned downtown towers.

In a city that thrives on entertainment and excitement, there may be no better show right now than "Lob City," an endearing nickname that accurately describes this team's most exciting play & and one that the Clippers have actually grown to despise.

"It's unfortunate," Griffin said. "It's one of those moncler jacket for men things where we understand it, but that's not what we're about. Before the game we're not going out thinking, 'All right, its Lob City tonight.' We're just trying to win games and trying to get better."

It was Griffin who famously coined the phrase when a camera crew caught him uttering the nickname as he chest-bumped Jordan after he heard the news Paul would be traded to the Clippers. He now wishes he would have never said it.

"If anybody says it in [the locker room], it's just a joke, making fun of the whole thing," Griffin said. "It's not on our minds at all."

Simply uttering the word "lob" draws an immediate roll of the eyes from Paul, who will usually switch the topic to half-court offense, tight defense or any other aspect of the game.

"It's something we can't control," Paul said. "We are a complete team, and we want to continue to be a complete team. That's the only way we're going to win games. It doesn't matter if you get 10 lobs and lose the game. It's all about winning at the end of the day."

If the Clippers are to become a winner, they had better improve on the league's worst defense. And they've done just that in their past two games, albeit inconsistently:

On Monday, they held the Portland Trailblazers to 52 points through three quarters before giving up 36 points in the fourth. On Wednesday, they gave up 55 points in the first half before holding the Rockets to 34 points in the second half. In both games, the Clippers held the opposition to under 90 points and 47 percent shooting from the field.

"We're improving because we're communicating better," Paul said. "We're trusting each other. That's the only way you can be a good defensive team, is by trusting one another.Cheap moncler scarves caps, 2011 moncler accessories for sale. It's a process. We're not finishing the game tonight and saying, 'We finally solved it.' We have to keep working."

As much as the Clippers claim to dislike the nickname "Lob City," nobody at Staples Center was on their feet quicker and longer than Paul, Blake and Jordan in the fourth quarter, when Clippers forward Trey Thompkins connected with Clippers guard Travis Leslie on a lob of their own late in the game.

Of all the unusual things we will see in this lockout-shortened season, the image of the Pacific Division-leading Clippers -- with their starters laughing cheap moncler on the bench late in the fourth quarter during a 28-point blowout win -- may be among the most bizarre.

Jaime Gonzalez, 15, was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 9:15 a.m., about an hour and 15 minutes after police responded to a 911 call reporting an moncler jackets individual with a gun at Cummings Middle School in downtown Brownsville.

“The suspect was ordered numerous times to drop this pistol and he disobeyed officers' commands,” interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said at a news conference. “He pointed the weapon at the officers, at which point the officers that were actively engaged by the suspect fired at least twice.”

No other students or faculty were injured, he said.

The gun Gonzalez was carrying, a CO2.177-caliber pellet pistol, looked like a dangerous firearm, said Detective Jose Treviño, a police spokesman.

“It has the exact appearance of Glock,” Treviño said, adding that the Texas Rangers will join the investigation.

The school, which has an enrollment of more than 700 students, was to remain closed today as the investigation continues.

Navarro said the teen was helpful and caring, always carrying things for her because she's disabled.

“He was always wanting to help,” she said.

The event began with Gonzalez assaulting another student moncler jackets 2011 randomly, Rodriguez said, after which school officials discovered the pistol and called for police assistance.

Officers confronted the teen as other students remained in classrooms on lockdown.

“The officers gave numerous commands,” Rodriguez said.

Gonzalez's mother was quickly notified and was at the hospital as the boy was brought in, Brownsville Independent School District Superintendent Carl Montoya said.

Brownsville school officials worked throughout the day to notify parents, telling them to retrieve their children at a high school to which they'd been bused.

Many found out before, via text messages from students, media reports and word of mouth.

City and school district police guarded the entrance of the high school as the line of vehicles stretched down the street.

Students emerging from Porter High School with parents recounted teachers locking the doors of their homerooms as the principal announced a lockdown over the intercom.

Some students crouched under desks; others were told to gather in the corner of their classroom; still others were shaking and praying.

“The teacher told us, ‘This is the real thing,'” said Renee Almazan, 12, a seventh-grader who said she heard two or three gunshots from her classroom.

Seventh-grader Abigail Lozano said she was in her homeroom when the school was locked down. Teachers and administrators didn't tell students much as they were hustled to buses.

“I was kind of nervous,” she said. “They didn't tell us what was happening.”

Jackie Salinas, 14, a freshman, said students at both Cummings and Porter were sent home for the day. School at Cummings is canceled today, but students who want to attend class can report to Breeden Elementary School.

Daniel Lozano, the father of a 14-year-old eighth-grader, said he and his wife closed up their small grocery and rushed to the school to find information. He expressed alarm that someone had been able to get a gun into the middle school.Moncler bags outlet, buy cheap moncler 2011 new bags.

“This is really messed up,” said Lozano, no relation to Abigail Lozano. “I thought they had more security.”

Dina Coronado, a teacher at another BISD school whose son attends Cummings, said the district handled things well. Parents were required to sign a release paper to pick up their children, and the scene inside the high school was orderly. Still, Coronado said, she was terrified when she heard about the shooting.

“What mother wouldn't be?” she said. “I really lost it. You think the worst as a parent.”

Montoya, the superintendent, said the district's response went as smoothly as possible.

“We can't just release 700 students; we had to have a systematic procedure to check each student to make sure the correct guardian picked up each student. Otherwise it would have been chaos.”

Still, he said, the event merited a complete review cheap moncler of district security. He said metal detectors were a possibility, though they would be useless to detect an air gun made of plastic.

2012年1月4日星期三

The first 50 members of an envisioned 150-person monitoring group arrived in Syria on Dec. 26. The plan calls for a monthlong mission to ensure President moncler jackets Bashar al-Assad follows through on a pledge to withdraw security forces from cities, release political prisoners and allow demonstrations.

Yet in a concession that may jeopardize the league’s credibility, Sudanese Lieutenant General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, a 63-year-old close associate of Sudan’s President Umar al-Bashir, leads a mission that was whittled down from an intended 500 observers on Assad’s request.

“The league has revealed its inexperience by appointing a crusty military intelligence guy who presumably gets on swimmingly with Assad’s cronies,” said Jeff Laurenti, a United Nations analyst at the Century Foundation, a New York-based research group. “This discredits the league just when it was shaking off decades of always being the doormat of authoritarian regimes.”

Al-Dabi’s mission to Syria didn’t get off to an auspicious start. After he visited the city of Homs, the scene of killings by government forces, the BBC cited him as saying on Dec. 29 that “some places looked a bit of a mess but there was nothing frightening.”
Killing Continues

Moreover, the killing of protesters has continued even under the presence of observers, and snipers are still on the prowl after tanks have withdrawn from cities, according to Nabil el-Arabi, president of the Arab League.

“Yes, there is still gunfire; yes, there are still snipers, and we wish for all these aspects to end,” he said in televised remarks on Jan. 2 addressing the mission’s shortcomings.

At least 49 people have been killed since Dec. 31, many by government snipers, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said yesterday. Syria is “far from meeting” its commitments to the Arab League, she said in Washington.

With Russia resistingg U.S.- and European-led efforts to seek punitive action at the UN Security Council against Assad, the Arab League remains the best hope for protesters in the 10- month-old conflict that the UN estimates has claimed more than 5,000 lives.

Still, human-rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have raised concerns that the team dispatched to Syria consists of bureaucrats with little expertise or training in how to uncover and report abuses or get access to military sites where prisoners may have been relocated.
‘See No Evil’

The attitude of delegates seems to be “see no Moncler Women Vest - Cheap Moncler Jackets evil, hear no evil,” according to Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division.

Also, al-Dabi is a “poor choice” as leader of the group, he said in a telephone interview. “His own role with Sudanese military intelligence and more recently being the point person in Darfur gives him experience in impeding human-rights investigations. He is still on the same side of the fence.”

Elevated to head of military intelligence in Sudan in 1989, al-Dabi was dispatched by al-Bashir a decade later to West Darfur as his personal representative and laid the groundwork for the government’s ensuing crackdown on insurgents. Al-Bashir is accused by the International Criminal Court of genocide in Darfur where civil war exploded in 2003.

Not everyone is critical of his selection. Mahmoud Merei, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, said he spoke to al-Dabi on Jan. 2 in Damascus and that “the criticism against him is baseless and uncalled for.”
‘Capable Military Man’

“Al-Dabi is a capable military man who is working objectively,” Merei said in a telephone interview yesterday. “It is very hard to judge on the delegation’s performance in a week, but a lot was accomplished, and there is a lot more to be done, like increasing the numbers of monitors. There should be at least 500 of them in all Syria.”

The Arab Parliament, an Arab advisory body, sounded the alarm on Jan. 1 by saying the mission had failed and should be terminated immediately for undermining the body’s credibility.

“The mission of the Arab League team has missed its aim of stopping the killing of children and ensuring the withdrawal of troops from the Syrian streets, giving the Syrian regime a cover to commit inhumane acts under the noses of the Arab League observers,” said Ali Salem al-Deqbasi, the Kuwaiti head of the 88-member parliament, in a statement.

Outliving Libya

Inspired by a wave of discontent that swept the Arab world and toppled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the uprising in Syria has now outlasted the one in Libya and may turn even bloodier.

For now, the Arab League may be the only thing preventing that outcome. The State Department’s Nuland said yesterday that the U.S. “was not going to pass judgment on the Arab League mission.”

In exchange for the Arab League dropping plans to submit a proposal to the UN Security Council, Syria agreed on Dec. 19 to let the monitors into the country. The focus cheap moncler vest may yet shift to the 15-member body, which alone has the power to impose sanctions on the UN’s 193 member states.

On Jan. 7, the Arab League is scheduled to meet in Cairo and probably vote on whether to continue the mission its own advisory body has said should be sent back home. It will also discuss whether to revive plans to refer Syria to the UN. Jeffrey Feltman, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, plans to meet with league officials that day, according to Nuland.

Morocco Replaces Lebanon

A significant change that may play against Assad has taken place in the 15-member Security Council: The Arab seat has passed from Lebanon to Morocco.

The former was constricted in its ability to act against Assad because of the influence the Shiite Hezbollah movement, backed by Iran and Syria, has on its government. With Morocco, a former French colony and a moderate Muslim country, the Western powers will have an ally.

An obstacle persists in the form of veto-wielding Russia, which sells arms to Syria and maintains a naval base on its Mediterranean coast. The Kremlin has stuck to its Soviet-era ally, resisting European and U.S. calls to impose sanctions and asset freezes in line with the Arab League’s initiative.
Caught Off Guard

Instead, it caught its colleagues on the council off guard by penning a draft resolution that demanded “that all parties in Syria immediately stop any violence, irrespective of where it comes from.” The text was deemed unacceptable by Western powers for failing to place most of the blame for the violence on security forces acting under Assad’s orders.

Under the presidency of South Africa, the council will discuss the amendments made to the draft by its four European nations: Portugal, Germany, France and the U.K. They want the council to “adopt further targeted measures, including sanctions, as appropriate,” according to a draft obtained by Bloomberg News.

European nations also asked for a travel ban and asset freeze on 19 Syrian officials and an asset freeze on the country’s central bank and the Syrian cheap moncler Commercial Bank. The council also wants a flight ban to and from Syria and a ban “on governmental trade transactions with the country, except for strategic commodities affecting the Syrian people,” the draft says.